Defence Legislation Amendment (RCDVS Implementation and Related Measures No. 2) Bill 2026
Senator SHOEBRIDGE (New South Wales) (12:17): I indicate that the Greens will be supporting this second piece of legislation to implement measures recommended by the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide. The purpose of the Defence Legislation Amendment (RCDVS Implementation and Related Measures No. 2) Bill 2026 is to make a series of amendments to the Defence Act and the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act to implement approximately 20 recommendations from the royal commission.
The minister says that the intent of the bill is to directly implement 15 recommendations and to support a further 20 recommendations. This is about changes to both the Defence Act and the compensation arrangements that are going to give some pretty essential support to the health and wellbeing of current and former members of the ADF. It also extends that help to families and requires the Department of Veterans' Affairs to address support for families in a fresh manner so that an ADF member's former spouse or partner can continue to get some support, even when they've separated.
It's stopping the mental health burden on families when veterans are put through the grinder in Defence and then, sometimes, the grinder in veterans affairs. We know who often takes that burden: family members. Sadly, too often, the way in which Defence treats serving members, and the way in which veterans affairs treats veterans, leads to significant mental health concerns for veterans.
Too often, that can lead to family breakdown. It is wrong to just ignore the partners of those veterans and simply say, 'Actually, you don't count anymore; you don't matter', because the trauma that they've had to live through and support, the family breakdown, all has at its core the injury and the way that injury was dealt with inside Defence. So we think extending support to former spouses and partners in the aftermath of a separation, where it's appropriate, is incredibly important.
The other provisions build on the amendments that were put in the previous bill that we considered, including directly—explicitly—prohibiting persons who had been sentenced to a period of imprisonment for a sexual offence from ever joining the ADF. It is remarkable that that wasn't in the law already, but, with this legislation, that will now become part of the law.
One of the core problems that the royal commission found was that there was not a safe culture to speak up inside Defence—that, if you spoke up, you often got shot down. That is the message we got repeatedly from veterans. It's what the royal commission heard, and it's what my office has heard in our engagement with veterans.
It is essential to ensure that, when veterans disclose information—it might be whistleblowing; it might be personal health information; it may be other deeply personal information—they know that it will only be for the purposes of the wellbeing, health and safety of ADF members and that it can't be abused by the hierarchy. This legislation puts that in place.
This is a bill that has been a long time coming. I want to give credit to the brave veterans and serving members of the ADF who gave their evidence to the royal commission and told the truth about the way the Defence Force so often treats its members as disposable. I hope that veterans and serving members of the Defence Force realise, with the broad political support for this legislation, that the Greens and other parties in here don't view current and former members of the Defence Force as disposable.
They are people with full lives and families and the right to be treated with respect and decency inside and outside of Defence. This bill goes some way to making that a reality.